Date: 01st May 2016

 

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in Ireland recently funded the project ‘OPTI-SDS: An investigation of the optimum specification for soil depressurisation systems (active and passive) that take account of Irish Building Practices’.

 

This project is a new research collaboration between two research groups within NUI Galway (led by Dr Mark Foley and Dr Jamie Goggins) and an international collaboration with Dr José – Luis Gutiérrez (University of Cantabria – Spain) and his colleagues. Dr Gutiérrez and his colleagues have extensive research experience in this field, have disseminated widely on this topic and are on the executive committee of the European Radon Association (ERA). This project will broaden the knowledge base of work in this area, create synergies, and will foster new collaborations and research links into the future. It is an interdisciplinary project, which brings together experts in physics, civil engineering, radon research and mitigation.

 

The objective of this project is to conduct an investigation of the optimum specification for soil depressurisation systems (active and passive) that take account of Irish Building Practices. The National Radon Control Strategy (NRCS) for Ireland has identified several knowledge gaps, including the optimum specifications for passive soil depressurisation (PSD) systems that take account of Irish building practices. In this novel project, the impact of radon membranes, modern hardcore and stack systems on the effectiveness of the radon sump will be investigated under controlled laboratory conditions.

 

These conclusions will be verified using model predictions. This project is funded by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Ireland for three years and started in May 2016. Dr Le Chi Hung recently joined the team as a postdoctoral researcher.